Published 6:30 am, Saturday, March 6, 2004

Now they are listed on a Web site being marketed to doctors who want to check if prospective patients have filed lawsuits.

"It's so unfair, and it's so ridiculous," said Romero, who lives in Humble with her husband, Ricardo, who suffered severe brain damage during back surgery. "Ours was not a frivolous lawsuit. Bad doctors need to be held accountable for their actions."

Critics of the Web site say it's an unethical "blacklist" of people, some of whom have been grievously injured by negligent physicians.

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"They can sue but they can't hide," states the DoctorsKnow.Us Web site. For $4.95 a month, members can perform up to 250 name searches.

Terrell radiologist John Shannon Jones formed DoctorsKnow.Us as a Texas limited liability company in January 2003. The Web site, which began operating last November, combs public records for people who have filed medical malpractice, personal injury, product liability or general civil lawsuits. The site states it does not judge "the fitness" of the claims.

The Web site states it is the first company that profiles medical malpractice plaintiffs, plaintiff attorneys and expert witnesses.

"Malpractice plaintiffs must now permanently bear the burden of their public claims," the site states.

Jones did not return a telephone call left at his office Friday. He was quoted in the Wall Street Journal on Friday as saying he wants the site to deter frivolous lawsuits.

"People are going to find that if they sue doctors, they are going to find their access to health care may be limited," Jones was quoted as saying.

The newspaper reported that the database has about 50 members and lists fewer than 100,000 patient names.

"This contemptuous disregard for the public health and the Hippocratic Oath is moral malpractice. It is pure thuggery intended to blacklist patients who have been victimized by negligence and hurt by medical mistakes," Lambe said in a letter to Charles W. Bailey Jr., a Houston physician who serves as president of the medical association.

Bohn Allen, president-elect of the medical association, said there's little the group can do about the Web site, which he believes is protected by the First Amendment. But he said if a complaint is filed against any Texas physician related to the Web site, it would be investigated through the usual disciplinary process.

"What I think this represents is just the culmination and bubbling to the surface of physicians' frustration with frivolous lawsuits and having to defend themselves," said Allen, an Arlington physician.

But Allen also said he doesn't think the Web site will be successful.

"I expect this thing will die of its own weight," he said.

Dawson, a Fort Worth-based public sector employee who helps hospitals obtain anti-terrorism grants, thinks his access may already have been affected.

Earlier this year, he was turned down by six doctors when he tried to sign up his 18-year-old son as a new patient. Although he was told that the doctors weren't accepting new patients or his insurance, he now wonders if the denials had something to do with the lawsuit he filed for his ex-wife's minor children after she died.

Dawson said he gained nothing financially from his lawsuit against a Fort Worth hospital and doctor because they were divorced and he had no claim to her estate when she died in 2000 from a brain tumor.

He said he filed the lawsuit, which was settled for an undisclosed amount, to ensure that his ex-wife's children will be able to attend college. His 18-year-old son is no relation to his former wife.

Dawson, who has a nursing degree, said he understands doctors' frustration but thinks it's irresponsible for the Web site to list names with no idea of the background of the legal claim.

"Sometimes there's a very, very good reason for a lawsuit," said Dawson.

Lambe said he signed up to be a member of the Web site and then ran the names of several medical malpractice plaintiffs his group worked with during last year's public debate over lawsuit damage limitations.

Among the plaintiffs listed on the site were the Romeros and their three children. The family won a $40.6 million verdict in a medical malpractice case.

Evidence presented to a Harris County jury in 2000 showed that Romero's doctor, Dr. Merrimon Baker, had left a surgical sponge inside another patient's body, and operated on the wrong leg and hip of two other patients.

He lost privileges to perform surgery at two hospitals, and his ex-wife testified in court that she divorced him because of his addiction to prescription painkillers.

Baker, of Cleveland, did not return a telephone call Friday. He and an anesthesiologist settled for $2.2 million. The jury's verdict against the hospital where the surgery was performed is on appeal.

Dolores Romero said her husband, a former dock foreman, requires constant care. She quit her job as a bank teller to help him and said the family uses the settlement money to pay their living expenses and medical bills.